As part of measures to ensure liquidity in the country’s forex market, the Nigerian government has began engagement with persons hoarding the dollar, as well as organizations and those found to have looted the treasury to make them “bring their monies to the mainstream market.”

A source in the Presidency quoted by PUNCH said the move was a major part of two Executive Orders recently signed by President Bola Tinubu with the understanding that the government was willing to do whatever was necessary to solve the problem.

Although the orders are now in operation, their content and the ramifications of the interventions are unknown as they are yet to be gazetted. The new moves are occurring as plans intensify to stabilise the market and sustain the appreciation of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, which has fallen against the dollar in recent weeks.

During the week, ANW reported that Nigeria’s Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the economy, Mr Wale Edun, while speaking on a panel session of the 29th Nigeria Economic Summit, held in Abuja noted, “Mr President announced that he had taken measures to ease illiquidity in the forex market, which we know is very problematic at this time.

“The market is illiquid; it’s not functioning properly because there is no supply, and there are various reasons for that. The solution that the President has put on the table is that he has signed an executive order that effectively allows, under forbearance, all the cash that is in the domestic economy to legally come into the formal money supply.

“Along with that, there is another executive order that allows domestic issuance of foreign currency instruments so that they will have the incentive to provide that foreign exchange from whatever source.”

The source claims that the Executive Orders are purposefully concealed from the public to avoid creating too much controversy and diverting attention away from the administration’s objective of stabilising the value of the naira.

The official said, “It’s intentional that we didn’t put out the details. We are talking to a large enough number of stakeholders to bring in their dollars to the mainstream market. These people hold billions worth of cash and we are trying to send them a clear message that they can inject money into the economy and still take it out swiftly when they want.

“We need those dollars back in the system. So, we are trying to see how we can regularise them.”

The Nigerian government has sought to stabilize the country’s economy with two major policy actions: the removal of the fiscal bleeding in petrol subsidies and the unification of the exchange rate. The results have not been positive with the further fall of its currency value and rise in cost of living.